This new site was just launched today. Their purpose is simply to provide a place to be a source of encouragemnt to women. And they're asking us to blog about what encourages us.
If I'd read this question yesterday, I probably would have started off with my faith, my family, and my friends. I'd have listed songs that speak to me, and poems that touch the heart. I'd have cited Scripture and quotes from favorite authors. I'd have described beautiful sunsets and the sound of crashing waves.
That was before I spent the day sitting in the oncology ward at Johns Hopkins with a friend while she received a round of chemotherapy.
Suddenly encouragement looks a little different. I looked around me today and saw husbands sitting with their wives, wives with their husbands, daughters with their mothers, a father with his daughter, and friends sitting with friends. I watched nurses treat their patients like people and not an ID number. I saw tears being wiped away as well as shared smiles and laughter. I saw nurses wearing buttons on their scrubs proclaiming that "Cancer Sucks", and I laughed. I looked at the faces of these people, faces of people fighting for their lives, and yet they still smiled. I thought of the anxieties of my own, which pale in comparison, and I felt embarrassed.
Yesterday I would have answered this question with what encourages me. After today I think the question shouldn't be "what encourages you?", but "what can I do to be an encouragement to someone else?"
3 comments:
I was just checking out that site today. Have you read the article about the couch yet? Boy did that speak to me and make me happy for all the apple juice stains on my couch that I used to be so embarassed about when people would come over :)
This might seem a little strange, although probably not to you since you're a blogger, but I am so encouraged by reading other people's blogs. I love it when people are transparent and real and I people feel safe doing that online. But I love blogging. I love comments and I love the enoucouragement I've found in this "sub culture" we call the blogging world.
P.S. I don't think I've actually said this to you yet...I thought it and never said it ... you know how you do that sometimes??? Anyway, I would love to give you a blog makeover sometime if you want one. I'm not super great at it. My computer is lame, so it hinders me. And I tend to lose all the page elements people put on their side bars, but if you want to risk that, I would love to do it! You can pick colors, pictures, theme, etc and I'll get to work. I usually takes me about 48hour to get it completed from start to finish because I have a certain one year old who won't leave me along!! Just let me know if you're interested.
Wow, yes, what a great perspective! You're so right that we should all be asking ourselves each day, "How can I be an encouragement?" And then in return, I believe encouragement finds it's way back to us eventually. It reminds me of the Proverb that says the one who refreshes others will be refreshed too. Thanks for the powerful reminder!
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